by C. M. Hayden
Sorkesh’s cloak was opened, and his left hand went for a jagged knife strapped to his hip. It was an ornate, long dagger with an ivory handle. He drew it and pointed it at Decker aggressively.
“You’ll tell me what I want to know, or I’ll bleed it out of you.”
Sorkesh’s partner, Trezu, looked wholly uncomfortable at this. He came just a few inches from his companion and motioned for him to lower the knife. “We’re men of the Mast, we cannot hurt the child.”
Sorkesh gave him a furious side-glance. “Losing your nerve already?”
Trezu looked down at the floor. “The deepest levels of Charond are reserved for those who harm children. When the Old High Gods return, they’ll—”
“You should worry less about the gods and more about the Shahl.”
Decker looked at the clenched medallion in his hand, and up with teary eyes at the Sorkesh. Despite his red cheeks and huffing, he spoke with remarkable certainty. “When my brother finds out about this, he’s going to kick your ass.”
Sorkesh pushed his dagger against Decker’s neck and the boy yelped. “That right?”
“He’s a magister,” Decker said with a look of abject fear in his eyes.
“Don’t hurt him!” Taro’s mother said, grasping at her son.
“All of you shut up, I need to think,” Sorkesh blustered. He kicked Taro’s mother in the shoulder with the butt of his heel and knocked her head against the wall.
Taro saw red, and his templar flared like a furnace. He stepped out of hiding, his fists clenched, and spoke slowly and deliberately. “Touch her again, and I’ll rip you in half.”
Sorkesh was momentarily surprised, but he quickly recovered. “Oh, look Trezu, we’ve got company,” he said, waving his dagger just in front of Decker. He peered down. “So this is the one who’s going to ‘kick our asses’, huh? A cripple. I’d like to see that.”
Taro’s eyes darted around the room, from Decker and the medallion clenched in his hand, and back to Sorkesh. “Let my brother go now, and I won’t kill you.”
“Certainly. Hand over that little dowsing compass you acquired, and I’ll let him go.”
Taro didn’t have to think twice. While it might’ve been his best bet to find Nima, the immediacy of the situation made it an easy choice. He fished the compass from his pack and tossed it over. “There, you have what you want. Let him go.”
Sorkesh lowered his knife, and leaned down to pick up the compass. When he did, Taro looked Decker in the eyes.
“Do you trust me?” Taro asked. Decker nodded, standing stiff as a board. “Close your eyes and open your hands.”
Decker’s eyes closed and his palms opened, exposing the medallion. Taro reached out with his templar and could feel the levitation runes still present on the metal. In all his time at the Magisterium, he’d never been able to project his templar more than a few feet, but he pushed himself until he felt a link with the metal.
The medallion jumped from Decker’s palm and swiped across Sorkesh’s shoulder like a knife. The Helian shouted as blood splattered from the wound; the medallion swept back and forth, cutting into him in ten different spots.
Sorkesh’s dagger fell from his hand, and Taro’s mother kicked the blade away.
By the time the medallion fell lifeless to the floor, Taro was sweating and panting, and Sorkesh was a tattered mess. The despicable man coughed and cursed through a mouthful of blood.
Trezu was shaking and took two wide steps back. “We shouldn’t have come here,” he said, and knelt down as if he were praying.
Beads of sweat poured from Taro’s face and neck, and he felt like he’d throw up. He walked to Trezu and grabbed the frightened man by the collar. “Whether or not you live depends on the next words out of your mouth. I swear by every god below, if you lie to me, that—” he gestured toward Sorkesh’s unmoving body, “—will be pleasant compared to what I do to you.”
“My lord, I was opposed to this. I tried to stop him. I—”
Taro punched him square in the face, leaving a huge welt on his cheek. “You and your friend threaten my family and you think I give two shits about you ‘trying’ to stop it? Tell me exactly why you’re here and why you need that.” He pointed at the dowsing compass on the floor.
“It’s complicated.”
“You better find a way to make it less complicated, then.” Taro pushed the dagger against Trezu’s neck.
“All right, all right,” Trezu pleaded. “We were sent by the Shahl to find the compass. He knew it was in Vexis’ possession and desired it greatly. When we went to see her, she told us it was in the Librarium; but when we got there, their records said you’d already removed it.”
“I thought you Helians didn’t believe in using magic? You don’t think the Shahl’s request was a bit strange?”
“It’s not my place to question His Lordship. I simply do as I’m told. We’re to retrieve the compass and bring Vexis home. The Sun King allowed for us to talk with her, shortly after you did, and we arranged her escape.”
Taro lowered the dagger. “You have a way to get her out?”
Trezu’s voice steadied. “The Shahl didn’t expect the Sun King to surrender her, so he provided us with some equipment to get her out.”
“Such as?”
“Many things, my lord. If you permit me to live, I could show you.”
Taro released his collar. “Oh, you’re going to do more than that. You’re going to finish what you started. Break Vexis out and bring her to the east docks.”
Trezu gave a look of profound confusion, and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “But why?”
“That’s not how this works. You don’t get to ask questions.” Taro grabbed the medallion off the floor and tucked it into Trezu’s pocket. “This is to stay on you at all times. Take a look at your friend over there.”
Trezu looked down at Sorkesh and shuttered.
Taro tilted the man’s face back toward him. “That’s what you’ll look like if you stray one inch from our accord. No matter how far you run or where you go, I can control this bit of metal,” Taro lied. “Is that understood?”
“Yes, my lord, but…”
“But…?”
Trezu gulped. “I can’t do it alone.”
Taro checked Sorkesh’s pulse. He was alive. “Take him to the hospital on Core Street. When he wakes up, express upon him the consequences of him not keeping his mouth shut. I’ll meet you there. Go.”
Trezu lifted his bloody, half-conscious friend from the floor and they limped out. When the door shut, Taro collapsed. His limbs trembled, his breathing was shallow, and his eyes were unfocused.
Decker nudged him on the shoulder. “Are you okay, Taro?”
Taro nodded and tried his best to smile. “I’m fine.”
“You really are magic,” Enam said from the corner. He’d been crying heavily, and his face was awash with tears.
“Told you!” Decker shot back.
“You didn’t think I’d let ’em hurt you?” Taro ruffled Decker’s hair and sat with his legs crossed. He was glad Trezu didn’t fight back, because every ounce of his energy was drained. For a long moment, he could barely lift his arms.
“Boys, go pick up your rooms,” their mother said. Her voice was full of deep concern, and the boys obeyed, leaving Taro and her alone in the upended living room.
Taro’s mother idly sat some of the chairs and tables back up. She looked as though she had a great deal on her mind, and when she finally spoke it sounded as though she was trying to avoid any direct accusations.
“Vexis,” she began, “that’s the name of that girl I’ve heard about. That monster.”
Taro nodded wearily. “That’s her.”
His mother clutched the back of one of the chairs she’d just sat upright and for the first time Taro noticed that she was a far cry from calm. Her entire body was tense.
“I’ve let a lot of things go over the years, you know that,” she began carefully.
; “I know,” Taro said. He sensed what was coming, but was too exhausted to preempt it.
“But this…Taro, if they find out that you helped her again.”
“Then there’s nowhere on earth I’d be safe. They’d hunt me down.”
His mother ran her hand on his cheek. “Love, that’s always been your problem. You don’t see how what you do affects those closest to you. If you help her, it’ll be the end of your father’s career as a warder, your brothers will never get proper schooling here, they might even arrest us all as conspirators. I don’t fancy myself an overly smart woman, but even I can see that. Why can’t you?”
“I don’t think the Sun King would—”
“You don’t think?” His mother’s voice raised several octaves, and for a moment it looked as though she’d smack him. “This isn’t a game. These are powerful men. They’ll show you no mercy, not the Sun King, not the Magisterium.”
“I can keep you all safe,” Taro said, waving his hands downward in a calming motion.
His mother bit her lip and slapped him against the side of the head. “Are you listening to me? You’re not just risking your own life, you’re risking your brothers’, your father’s. Mine.”
“Vexis can help me find Nima. I can keep her under control.”
“I’ve kept my mouth shut about a lot of things these few years,” she repeated, “but I can’t keep quiet about this.”
“It’s going to be all right.” Taro tried to hug her, but she pushed away from him.
She stabbed a finger in his direction. “I told your father he was wrong about you; but if you’re willing to risk all of us like this, then you’re not the boy I thought you were.”
His mother’s eyes were as hard as stone, and all her characteristic gentleness was gone. She looked at Taro with such anger that he wanted to just melt away.
Taro stared at a loose floorboard. “I have to do this, Mom. I’m sorry.”
His mother shook her head. “Amín knows I can’t stop you,” she said bitterly. “You’re obviously powerful; but when a dozen warders show up at our door, are you going to be there to save us?”
“That won’t happen,” Taro said with more confidence than he felt.
Several times over the next few hours, his mother looked as though she wanted to speak, but she stopped just short of it. And so, they scrubbed the blood off the floor in silence, a silence that was ten times worse than all the chastisement in the world.
Deep down, Taro knew she was right. If he was caught helping Vexis, there was no telling what would happen.
Chapter Thirteen
Artifices from the East
After leaving Sorkesh at the Core Street hospital, Trezu led Taro to the quarters the Sun King had provided during their stay in the capital. It was fairly modest for their alleged positions.
Taro was especially careful when he entered. He insisted that Trezu come out to meet him first and wouldn’t go in alone. When he was certain it was safe, he entered the one-story suite. It was bare and had only one room, no kitchen (but for a magistry stove in the corner, which hadn’t been touched). There were no decorations or objects outside of the two Helian’s travel packs and some assorted bits of clothing.
Trezu’s hands were trembling as he stepped over the doorpost.
“Show me what you’ve got,” Taro said.
Trezu laid three items out on the dull wooden floorboards. The first was a sphere with iron bands on the sides that crisscrossed over the ends. Where the bands met was a rectangular groove that seemed to be a button. Taro shook it against his ear and heard sloshing liquid inside.
Trezu raised one concerned hand. “Please, be careful.”
“What’s in it?”
“The chemical inside briefly turns to smoke when it touches the air. I’ve heard it’s derived from the Kojah tree.”
Taro gave him a flat look. “Isn’t that a seasoning?”
“A Shian pepper, yes. The gas will render most men unconscious. If the button on top is pressed, it can incapacitate an area ten yards around. It dissipates very quickly, however. Mere seconds at best.”
Taro sat the iron sphere down and picked up the next item: a short, curved blade with a rounded handle.
Trezu took the knife and twisted the blade off like a cap. Inside of the handle was a glass cylinder of yellowish-green liquid with a sharp pin sticking upward. “One prick and it will render a fully grown man unconscious.”
The final item was unlike the other two. It certainly wasn’t Helian-made—in fact, it wasn’t even manmade. It was a shimmering stone and steel disc, and from the unique Deific markings Taro recognized it as an artifice of the Old Gods.
Its mere presence raised more questions than anything. Its function suddenly seemed secondary to Taro’s main point: “I thought you Helians didn’t believe in using magic like this. The other two objects I can understand, but this…where did you even get it?”
Trezu seemed momentarily at a loss for words. “I only follow His Lordship’s orders,” he said defensively. “He’s granted me and Sorkesh special dispensation to use certain artifacts from the vaults of the Grand Aculam.”
“Awfully convenient.”
“If you’re implying that—”
“I’m not implying anything. Your Shahl sounds like a jackass.”
“His Lordship,” Trezu began indignantly, “has brought unprecedented peace and prosperity to Helia. Before him, it was a den of iniquity.”
“Oh, is that why there are so many Helians fled to Endra?” Taro countered.
Trezu laced his fingers together. “Heretics. Nothing more.”
Taro held up the artifact and smirked. “And what does this make you?”
Trezu mumbled under his breath and proceeded to show Taro what the artifact could do. He twisted the top half, and the line of crystals on the sides changed color.
“Hold it against the floor and press down,” Trezu said.
Taro did so and edges of the disc illuminated in a cone shape. After the space of two breaths, the device hummed and left a perfectly circular cut in the wood. The edges of the charred beams smoked and the entire inner part of the circle was vaporized.
“In the old days it was used for mining,” Trezu said. “It can cut through most anything.”
Taro looked the device over again, this time much more wary about the edges. It wasn’t even warm. He shook his head and spun the device around several times. No moving parts. No obvious power sources. Very few inscriptions, given the nature of the device. “What’s powering it?”
“I’m sure I wouldn’t know,” Trezu said.
With his chin pressed against his knuckle, Taro glared down at the items and thought for a long moment. Then, he shook his head. “This isn’t going to work. Blast through every wall you want, by the time you find Vexis they’ll have fifty warders on your ass.”
“We hadn’t planned on going through the front door. If we had a map of the Carcerium interior…”
Taro laughed hard. “Good luck tracking that down. Most of the defenses were built in the Artificium, and they’re rather meticulous in protecting their records.”
Taro felt a deep stabbing in his chest as he ran his words back through his head a few times. A map of the Carcerium would be somewhere in the Artificium. If Magister Briego were still in charge of it, Taro might’ve been an apprentice by now and able to access their vaulted archives without question. However, with Kyra in charge, getting anywhere near them without scrutiny would be impossible.
Taro could almost feel himself being torn in half. He was at an impasse; on one hand he could leave for Helia now and search for Nima. In a vast country thousands of leagues around, it would be like trying to find a grain of rice in a blizzard. It wasn’t possible. He needed Vexis.
“I might have a friend who can get me a layout of the prison,” Taro said, wringing his hands on his pant leg. “You know the woodlands around the Carcerium?”
Trezu nodded.
“Me
et me on the northern edge in four hours,” Taro said.
_____
A few months earlier, Taro wouldn’t have had any anxiety about telling Ven just about anything. However, in the year since Pipes’ death Ven had grown more distant. Sure, he still went through the motions of their friendship, but it was obvious to anyone that the loss of Pipes weighed on his heart. And it was no secret that Taro was partially responsible.
Because of this, Taro was well-aware that what he was about to do was wholly stupid, if not suicidal.
As expected, Ven was in the Artificium on his free day. The metal work on his project seemed to be mostly done. He’d finished the frame of a long drum-shaped cylinder, and fourteen gears were laid out on a dry cloth on a nearby worktable. Ven was now working with glass and carving lenses on a rotating belt sander.
“A telescope?” Taro said, somewhat startling Ven.
Ven wore a wide, bright smile. Apparently, he was having a good day. He finished sanding down one of the edges of the circular lens in his hands, and set it beside the evenly spaced pieces on the table.
“You finally guessed it, eh?” Ven said.
Taro shrugged. “Honesty, I thought you were making a cannon or something. A telescope? That’s a surprise.”
“I wouldn’t be able to sell a weapon. The Artificium would keep it. With a telescope, I might be able to make a bit of money.”
“Probably not in the city though,” Taro said. The Arclight made most small-scale astronomy difficult.
Ven shrugged. “They’re big on astronomy in Celosa, maybe I can sell it to a merchant heading that way. It’s got some really great modifications I wanted to show you.”
Taro leaned against the worktable and nudged some of the tools like a child who couldn’t keep still. “So your future apprenticeship with Kyra is on track?”
Ven nodded. “She invited me to a private dinner with eight of her other apprentices next weekend. I think she might make it official soon.”
“I hope Magister Veldheim treats me that well.”
Ven peered up from his work. “You’re Veldheim’s apprentice? Taro, that’s wonderful!”